Ditch the guilty conscience and feel free to daydream

Hi there,

Every working method, every tool, and every approach has its limits. There comes a point when it no longer does the trick, or when it starts to work against you.

Coming up with goals, for instance, at work or in your personal life, can easily turn into a goal in itself. Then it’s no longer the results that matter, but performing the goal-setting process. An overly-rigid schedule or an ultra-organized and streamlined to-do list falls into the same category. 

It’s an argument often made by skeptics for not using these work tools in the first place, and I think there’s something to it. Enthusiasts who are excited about the good outcomes or a smoothly-running process do run the risk of overdoing it. We’ll get to the skeptics in a moment. But first, the enthusiasts:

For the process enthusiasts

If you can relate to getting lost in the process, then here are some things that might help:

• Ask yourself Where can I ease up a little? Experimenting with scrapping things from your process can work as powerfully as adding them. 

• Build in moments to look at your process with some distance. Yep: a process to keep tabs on going overboard on process. If that appeals, then you know you belong to this group. That may mean adding a point to your Friday recap. Or what helped me was adding a balance and downtime question to weekly meets with my partner in crime. 

• Talk with creatives and read about folks who work more chaotically. That helps keep me mindful that there are truly lots of ways to do this work thing. A friend of mine peppers me with suggestions about doing nothing for days – staring out the window, reading books I wouldn’t pick up normally. I don’t have to take it all on board, but it never fails to get me thinking.

For the process skeptics

Just as there’s a way to overdo it, there’s also a way to underdo it when it comes to trying out new methods. Before you reach a certain point, you simply can’t tell yet whether it works for you. Throwing out a method without really giving it a shot is a bit like smelling a vaccine and thinking: That didn’t give me the least bit of immunity, so an injection must not be worthwhile either. Or getting in a car without knowing how to operate the thing, and then deciding that clearly cars won’t get you anywhere. 

I’m sure you, as a reader of this newsletter, need no convincing. But perhaps you have people around you that could use a gentle push. These pointers are for them:

• If you can’t stand things like to-do lists, calendars filled with designated time blocks, and other things that smack of work, consider taking a step back. Give yourself time to dream about the things that matter most to you. All those work tools are helpful when you find it difficult to daydream with lots of loose ends. If you’re the creative type, maybe you don’t have any trouble with that.
  Use those skills to give yourself permission to daydream, and challenge yourself to make your thoughts more tangible this time – a brainstorm session with sticky notes, a painting about your life in five years, a film depicting your dreams. Surrender to the creativity instead of trying to repress it out of a need to be productive. The insight you gain just may give you the energy and inspiration to set up your days differently. 

• Quick fixes won’t give you lasting effects. Downloading that promising new app or buying that shiny new day planner is not the solution. Knowing that, and understanding the appeal, is a good good thing. At the same time, I do believe there are routines that would suit you perfectly and give you at least twice the mental space and bandwidth for whatever’s important to you.
  Give those experiments some time. Don’t give up on them too soon. It’s easier to stick with it when the first steps are small, but be aware that a new way of working always means a time investment on your part. Skip the solutions that promise the world and try out those counterintuitive suggestions that ask a bit more of you. 

• Also good to know: By adding just a little more structure here and there, you can be far freer in how you do things the rest of your week. That means less structure and less stress. Start experimenting in the areas that bother you most.

As someone who’s firmly in the first camp – a process freak who sometimes overdoes it – I’m always eager to hear from people who approach new working methods (or parts of them anyway) with some degree of skepticism or resistance. What do you run up against? What kinds of first steps do you see working well for this group? My inbox is open. 

Have a good week!

Rick